Scritti Politti – ‘The Word Girl’ UK 3″ Mini-CD (Virgin CDT 13, 1988)

This release is from a series of 3″ CD singles that Virgin Records pushed hard to establish in the late ’80s as a going concern in formatting. Cute as they were, and despite a good number of such releases from the Virgin and related labels, they never quite took off. Nevertheless, I have a lot of time for many of these, since they were a good way of finding sometimes obscure mixes on CD for the first time. But equally, many are somewhat maddening in the choice of tracks that were included to accompany the main single selection. We’ve been here before for example, look back on Side by side: 1988 Japan 3” CD singles for a good example of what I’m talking about; to this day, the ‘Ghosts’ 3″ CD single appears to be the only way to find that mighty fine late 1981 vintage live recording of ‘The Art Of Parties’ (Version) that was on the flip side of the original single release in digital form, despite may latter-day re-issue opportunities on Japan’s back catalogue. You want to hear a take with Steve Jansen hammering away on Simmons drums, roll right up! Meanwhile, an open goal is missed with the ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ 3″ CD single which picks two tracks that were never even anywhere near the original double-pack 7″ release – that single mix of ‘Burning Bridges’ remains unreleased digitally to this very day.

This Scritti Politti release sits somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, perhaps.

Tracklist:

1. ‘The Word Girl’ (4’24”)
2. ‘Flesh & Blood’ (5’34”)
3. ‘The Word Girl’ / ‘Flesh & Blood’ (Version) (5’05”)

So, this is pretty well a straight re-issue of the first UK 12″ release of ‘The Word Girl’, with the lead track being the same as the album mix (as opposed to the shorter edit that was used on the 7″ single release). ‘Flesh & Blood’ is the same as featured on the CD release of ‘Cupid & Psyche 85’, which came with four extra ‘versions’ as bonus tracks from day one. The interesting take here is ‘The Word Girl’ / ‘Flesh & Blood’ (Version). For many years, this was the only way to find it officially in digital format, though eventually it has found its way on to a couple of various artists compilations (such as ‘So80s 8’ in 2013 and ‘Now 12″ 80s: 1985 (Part One)’ in 2025).

There was a second UK 12″ limited edition release back in the day which dropped ‘The Word Girl’ / ‘Flesh & Blood’ (Version) altogether and replaced it with ‘Turntable Mix’, which featured a mash-up of ‘Hypnotize’ / ‘Wood Beez’ / ‘Absolute’. Now, here’s the item that could have also done with being included, as it has never seen any form of latter-day digital release officially. Interestingly, as a side point, the limited edition 12″ version of ‘The Word Girl’ was not its first outing – it was originally found on a 12″ UK promo release of ‘Hypnotize’ (Virgin VS 72513), shipped in a plain die-cut sleeve design with a sticker stating ‘Featuring Hypnotize/Wood Beez/Absolute Turntable Mix by Mastermind’ and ‘Turntable Mix by Mastermind (Wizard of the Turntable)’ on the label.

So, two more tracks at the very least to add to the list for that actual super deluxe box set of ‘Cupid & Psyche 85’ that we really want (along with a heck of a lot more versions that were not included on the 2026 ‘deluxe’ edition.